The unusual rush for three years in Ukraine of people who admire a 781-year resistance

For the past two months, that is, since Trump began pressuring Ukraine to yield to Russia, I've seen a recurring theme.

Ukraine, an admirable patriotism that puts Western patriotism to the test
Patriotism and the Russian invasion: Do you ask of Ukraine what you would not accept for your country?

This argument maintains that Ukraine has been resisting the Russian invaders for three years and has been unable to defeat them. Therefore, instead of sending military aid, what the West should do is pressure Ukraine to yield to the invaders and give up part of its territory, using the pretext that if it doesn't, more people will die. These deaths would be the responsibility of the invaders, but which some describe as the fault of those invaded for resisting the invasion.

Personally, I would have expected to read such perverse fallacies from the extreme left, whose contempt for patriotism is absolute and who have been acting for years as a band of Kremlin foreign policy puppets. I am surprised to find this argument among people who brandish patriotism as one of their values, from the opposite side of the political spectrum. Precisely because of their appreciation for patriotism, these people should be the ones who most support the cause of the Ukrainian people, who have been demonstrating heroic and admirable patriotism against the Russian invaders for three years.

Among some Spanish patriots, a paradox arises. As is well known, Spain was invaded by the Muslim Umayyads in 711. The invasion took 15 years to complete, and only small parts of the country (on its northern coast) remained outside the occupied zones. In 722, the first King of Asturias, Don Pelayo, achieved the first Christian victory against the invaders in the Battle of Covadonga, which for years has been one of the most admired events in its history among Spanish patriots. If the Spanish Christians had given up fighting three years after the invasion, the victory at Covadonga would not have happened, and today, surely, we Spaniards would pray facing Mecca.

Paradoxically, many who admire Don Pelayo today believe that three years of Ukrainian resistance are enough, claiming that Ukraine has no chance against the Russian invaders. Some even believe that Ukrainian President Zelensky deserves to be criticized for having believed they would be able to resist Russia. At the same time, these people admire a Spanish resistance, the Reconquista, which lasted 781 years, as it was not completed until 1492, with the defeat of the Muslim kingdom of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs.

I wonder what would have happened in the 8th century if Don Pelayo had had to endure the echoes of the Russian propaganda network, which has been very successful on both the far left and the far right. Would they say he was a warmonger who wanted people to die and should have negotiated with the Muslims? Would they accuse him of having been fooled by the propaganda of other Christian kingdoms and blame him for the war in Spain?

All of this may seem ridiculous, but this is the garbage some "patriots" have been hurling at Zelensky for years, while praising the heroic Spanish resistance initiated by Don Pelayo's victory at Covadonga. Leaving aside the obvious inconsistency of these people, it is proven once again that patriotism and nationalism are very different things. Patriotism is the love of one's homeland, and anyone who loves theirs should understand the courageous resistance of the Ukrainian people against an invading nation.

However, nationalism is an ideology that often confuses patriotism with ideas that have nothing to do with it, such as the belief that Ukraine shouldn't exist and should therefore now give up part of its territory to appease invaders. Many nationalists (who are not patriots) view Russia with sympathy because they admire imperialism much more than they admire patriotism, and also because they see the Kremlin as an ally against enemies of their particular ideological causes, even though Putin has allies as hostile to the West as the dictatorships of Iran, Communist China, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.

I have no doubt that if he had lived in the 8th century, these same people would have demonized Don Pelayo if it had been convenient for ideological reasons, even if it would have meant favoring the Umayyads and, with them, a Muslim expansionism that threatened to advance throughout the rest of Europe (let us remember that the Frankish kingdom of Charles Martel stopped the Muslims at the Battle of Poitiers in 732, in present-day France). That is precisely what some nationalists (not only in Spain) are doing with Russia, which has become the greatest current threat to peace in Europe.

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Image: Museo del Prado. Cuadro "El triunfo de la Santa Cruz en la batalla de las Navas de Tolosa" (The Triumph of the Holy Cross at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa), from 1892, work of Marceliano Santa María Sedano (1866-1952).